Super Rich Pay for First Class Health Care
A look at some of the health secrets of the super rich.
Oct. 9, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- Botox. Blood filtering. Personal physicians on call. When you're rich, there's no end to what you can buy to look younger and live longer.
If the rich have anything in common with normal people, it's that health is a primary concern. And from the looks of a survey by Prince & Associates, a Connecticut firm that tracks the habits and morays of the rich, their health concerns seem to match those of the general population. The biggest worry cited by those with over $1 million in assets: accidents, followed by cancer and heart disease.
But priorities differ between the "super rich" ($10 million or more in net worth) and the merely rich ($1 million to $10 million). Super rich people care more, across the board.
See how the rich stay healthy at our partner site, Forbes.com.
Wealthier people, for example, are nearly twice as likely to fret about mental health. Maybe they've been watching too many old movies with batty old matrons. They're also more worried about heart disease, cancer, viral and bacterial illness and accidents.
Russ Alan Prince surveyed 431 individuals with net worths of at least $1 million; about a third of those with assets over $10 million. Of the total sample, 36% said accidents were their main concern, followed by cancer (27%), and heart disease (21%).
Prince says it's true that money means longevity. The rich can afford good insurance, preventative care and exotic treatments, after all.
How exotic? How about filtering the blood to rid the body of toxins (the stuff of rock star legends)? The procedure is similar to blood dialysis, in which the blood passes through a filter that removes toxins. The cost of a typical first dialysis treatment is at least $2,000. (Note: The federal government picks up 80% of the tab for people who need dialysis for medical reasons.) There's no saying how much a Swiss clinic for super rich celebrities might charge for such a procedure.
Plastic surgery and other cosmetic treatments are much more common. Almost half the people in the Prince & Associates survey said they'd had plastic surgery in the last two years. Again, the percentages skew higher for the super rich. Of those with more than $10 million in assets, 58% have had plastic surgery, and 81% say they will have it in the next two years.
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